PDF enabled but not functional on Adobe Digital Editions readersePub enabled but not functional on Adobe Digital Editions readersOnline Reader on

Supported devices

iPhone / iPad

Android phones & tablets

Kindle Fire

e-readers with Adobe Digital Editions installed

PC

Mac

See the full list

Available Devices

X

This ebook is available for the following devices:

iPhone

iPad

Android

Kindle Fire

Windows

Mac

Sony Reader

Cool-er Reader

Nook

Kobo Reader

iRiver Story

more

During a major overhaul of British imperial policy following the Napoleonic Wars, an escaped convict reinvented himself as an improbable activist, renowned for his exposés of government misconduct and corruption in the Cape Colony and New South Wales. Charting scandals unleashed by the man known variously as Alexander Loe Kaye and William Edwards, Imperial Underworld offers a radical new account of the legal, constitutional and administrative transformations that unfolded during the British colonial order of the 1820s. In a narrative rife with daring jail breaks, infamous agents provocateurs, and allegations of sexual deviance, Professor Kirsten McKenzie argues that such colourful and salacious aspects of colonial administrations cannot be separated from the real business of political and social change. The book instead highlights the importance of taking gossip, paranoia, factional infighting and political spin seriously to show the extent to which ostensibly marginal figures and events influenced the transformation of the nineteenth-century British Empire. less

In the press

'Imperial Underworld covers much ground and generally does so exceptionally well. … narratively well balanced and analytically precise. In using the labyrinthine life of William Edwards as an entry point to explore lesser-known aspects of colonial policymaking, Kirsten McKenzie makes a valuable contribution to scholarly discussions on the unwieldy nature of reform, the role of scandal in colonial societies, and the negotiated qualities of rule between colony and metropole.' Oliver Charbonneau, H-Empire